The following abbreviations are herewith defined, at least some of which are referred to within the following description about at least the prior art and/or the present invention.
HLSHTTP Live StreamingHTTPHypertext Transfer ProtocolMPEGMoving Picture Experts GroupRTPReal Time Transport ProtocolRTSPReal Time Streaming Protocol
Adaptive bitrate streaming is a technique used by a stream manager (e.g., adaptive streaming server) for streaming multimedia over networks to user devices (e.g., computers, mobile communication devices, tablets, smart phones). While in the past most video streaming technologies utilized streaming protocols such RTP with RTSP, today's adaptive streaming technologies are mostly based on HTTP and are designed to work efficiently over large distributed HTTP networks such as the Internet.
HTTP adaptive bit rate streaming requires that the stream manager have multiple files of the source video which are encode at different bit rates. The stream manager then switches between streaming the different encodings of the content file depending on requests received from the user's device. The result of the HTTP stream is that the user's device experiences very little buffering and a fast start time so the user has a good experience for both high-end and low-end network connections.
Today, there are several HTTP adaptive bit rate streaming technologies that can be used by an adaptive streaming server for streaming multimedia over networks such as the Internet to user devices. For example, Apple's HTTP Live Stream (HLS) m3u8 file system is one such HTTP adaptive bit rate streaming technology where a “manifest” file is created to reference many video segments which are updated in real time to play in a particular order. Other HTTP adaptive bit rate streaming technologies include Adobe's Dynamic stream for Flash, Microsoft's Smooth Streaming etc. . . .
Although the current streaming technologies work fine there is still a desire to enhance streaming technologies and improve the streaming of content to user devices. This need and other needs are satisfied by the present invention.